Enoria is preparing for war with Irithara, and the team sans Kaleth are doing the best they can to put a stop to it before it progresses even further.
Their plan? Find Mereria, get her help with killing Relioth, and save Kaleth in the process. They...
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Nira had known it wouldn't be easy to get back to the capital of Irithara, but she hadn't imagined the van breaking down a few miles after crossing the border would be the reason. She'd assumed she'd get arrested, but the border patrols really did seem to ignore the area Rayni had recommended to Nira, so she'd gotten to Irithara easily enough.
The problem was that she'd crashed on one of the hundreds of islands making up most of the southern part of the Empire, and since she'd had pretty much no money on her, and her credit card had stopped working, she'd had to resort to hitchhiking.
Not the most pleasant way of transportation, but it had worked. Until now, at least. Nira had been stuck in the same tiny village for four days now. There was just no one passing through willing to let her tag along. She'd been forced to sell her phone for a ridiculously low price, which she really hadn't wanted to do, seeing as it was one of the few ways she could contact Nef, but since mobile coverage was basically nonexistent in these parts of Irithara, she doubted she'd have been able to call him, anyway. She'd sent a text to him before selling the phone, but all she could do was hope that he'd received it.
"Where are you heading, anyway?" asked the only waitress in the village as she brought Nira pancakes with so much honey on them even Nef would make a comment about the impending danger of diabetes.
Nira wasn't completely sure, but she thought the middle-aged woman's name was Era. They hadn't really talked to each other that much, but since Nira was the first new person to stay here for more than a day, she'd attracted attention. No one had commented on her strange eye color, or the fact that her hair was getting a blue hue, but Nira was sure that if they hadn't noticed yet, they would sooner or later, and she had no idea how they'd react, so she needed to leave as soon as possible.
"Uh, I'm heading...home," Nira answered, halfheartedly stabbing a fork into the pancakes. She hadn't even ordered them—she'd just wanted some coffee—but apparently Era liked her enough to pay for them.
It was surprisingly hard to call Aleara her home. She'd grown so accustomed to calling Enbrant home, but it hadn't really been true. It had been naïve to think Nira could escape her responsibilities. She wondered what her father would say once they were reunited.
"Oh, I know that look," Era said, her voice slightly teasing. "Let me guess. You had some disagreement with your family before leaving to wherever you were before."
That wasn't exactly right, but since Nira's family was the exact reason she wasn't looking forward to going back to the palace, it was accurate enough to keep Nira from denying it.
"I'm sure they'll be too happy to see you to start yelling," Era joked, and patted Nira on the shoulder. Nira stayed silent, but gave Era a small, slightly bitter smile. "Hey, listen..."
Nira blinked, surprised by the sudden change in mood as Era became serious.
"Normally I wouldn't tell you this, but you seem like a sweet kid, and you've had such rotten luck.... Anyway, there's a man living on the other side of this isle who might be able to help you get home. Or at least closer."
